The Insurance Commissioner’s decision for 2016 Workers Compensation rates is disappointing, but certainly better than those proposed by the Delaware Compensation Rating Bureau. The position of the members of the Workers Compensation Oversight Panel, which is chaired by myself, is that rates should be in the range proposed by the Panel’s independent actuary, which recommended a 2-3% increase.The State Chamber along with the other members of the Oversight Panel will continue to look for ways to lower Delaware’s workers compensation rates.The statement is below:​Insurance Department Announces Workers’ Compensation Rates for 2016DOVER, DE (November 17, 2015) – Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart today approved the Delaware Compensation Rating Bureau (DCRB)’s workers’ compensation amended rate filing, resulting in an overall average increase of 7.09% in residual market rates and 7.20% in voluntary market loss costs.The DCRB originally proposed overall increases of 14.92% for the residual market plan and 15.03% for the voluntary market loss costs. The Commissioner’s independent actuaries and the state’s Ratepayer Advocate each examined DCRB’s filing and recommended increases lower than the ones requested by DCRB. Following extensive discussions, the three parties proposed the amended rates which the Commissioner approved today.